c. 1997 Religion News Service

Gallup: U.S. religious attitudes similar to 1947

(RNS) A new Gallup report shows Americans say they are just as religious today as they were in 1947, despite widespread belief society has become more secular in recent decades.

Based on several surveys conducted in recent months, 96 percent of Americans today say they believe in God, 71 percent profess belief in an afterlife, 90 percent say they pray, and 41 percent say they attend religious services frequently (“almost every week”or”at least once a week”).

In a landmark 1947 Gallup survey, 95 percent said they believed in God, 73 percent professed belief in an afterlife, 90 percent said they prayed, and 41 percent said they attended religious services frequently.”A comparison of the religious climate today with that of 50 years ago … does not support the contention of social observers who maintain that America is far less attached to religion than a half-century ago,”says the report in the April edition of Gallup’s Emerging Trends newsletter.

Rather, the report continues, the new findings”support the contention that the last 50 years have been the most `churched’ half-century in U.S. history.” However, the report also notes that while Americans may profess broad belief in religious ideas, their faith appears to lack depth.

In an interview Wednesday (May 14), George Gallup Jr., executive director of the Princeton Religion Research Center, which publishes Emerging Trends, said his organization’s past surveys have identified three”gaps”that point to a lack of religious depth.

Americans, he said, do not generally live up to the ethical standards of their faith (“the ethics gap”), nor are they generally aware of their faith’s basic teachings (“the knowledge gap”). The third gap, said Gallup, is”between believers and belonging,”which contrasts the number of Americans who profess belief in God with the number who frequently attend religious services.

The surveys’ margin of error were plus or minus 3 percent.

Orthodox, Reform Jewish leaders plead Pollard’s case to Clinton

(RNS) In a rare display of Reform and Orthodox Jewish cooperation, leaders of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (OU) have sent a joint letter to President Clinton asking him to commute the life sentence of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard.

Pollard, a former Navy intelligence officer, is serving a life sentence for providing Israel with U.S. military secrets. Clinton has already denied Pollard’s bid for executive clemency twice. Since pleading guilty in 1986, Pollard has gained the support of a wide range of Jewish groups, who generally argue that his life sentence was excessive.

The letter, sent April 18 but not released until Tuesday (May 13), was signed by Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Reform UAHC, and Rabbi Raphael Butler, executive vice president of the OU.

The letter comes at a time of heightened tensions between non-Orthodox Jews and elements of the Orthodox community who say Reform, Conservative and other liberal Jewish movements are invalid expressions of the faith because they do not adhere strictly to traditional Jewish law.

In March, one small ultra-Orthodox group caused a stir by declaring Reform and Conservative Judaism”not Judaism.”The OU, the nation’s leading moderate Orthodox congregational body, has been highly critical of that declaration, preferring instead to emphasize Jewish unity over theological differences.

Both Butler and Yoffie said they could not recall a previous instance of their groups issuing a joint statement.

Despite the timing, Butler said the letter was not meant as a show of support for non-Orthodox Jews. Rather, he said,”the primary thrust of this is there is a Jew who is incarcerated and it’s an opportunity for all Jews to get together to save a Jew.” Yoffie said the letter”had no immediate motivation”other than showing support for Pollard,”although he added that”it does demonstrate that there are a number of areas in which (Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews) agree and can work together.” The joint Orthodox and Reform letter said that other than Pollard, the only spies who have received life sentences have been ones who worked for enemy states. Israel, Butler and Yoffie wrote,”is one of the United States’ most trusted allies.”

Cyprus gay legalization bill upsets Greek Orthodox

(RNS) Greek Orthodox religious leaders have taken to the streets of Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, to protest a move to end a 19th-century law banning homosexuality.

At issue is legislation in the Cypriot parliament that would overturn an 1889 law that bans sex between men, but makes no mention of sex between women. While the law is generally not enforced, Alecos Modino, a gay rights activist in Nicosia, petitioned the European Court of Justice, which in 1993 ruled the law discriminatory.

However, Greek Orthodox leaders say homosexuality is counter to the church’s traditional teachings, and Orthodox priests and monks have picketed parliament carrying signs referring to the biblical destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Last Sunday (May 11), the church’s Holy Synod, the Greek Orthodox ruling body in Cyprus, issued a statement stating”decriminalization of homosexuality will deal a blow to marriage and family … will encourage perversion and debauchery and will have as a result the further spread of various infectious diseases like AIDS.” Cyprus’ main political parties have yet to take a position on the legislation, according to Reuters. Cyprus is under pressure from the Council of Europe to overturn the ban.

Seminary music faculty questions extent of school’s financial woes

(RNS) Officials at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Mill Valley, Calif., exaggerated the financial problems at the seminary’s music school in order to pressure two music professors to resign, a faculty member claims.

Seminary President William Crews maintains the school did have a financial”emergency”but also admits there has long been a philosophical dispute between music school faculty and seminary administrators, reported Associated Baptist Press, an independent Baptist news service.

In April, seminary trustees changed their minds about closing the music school after Craig and Beth Singleton resigned in hopes of keeping the school open.

Craig Singleton said the school’s financial problems were not an”emergency.”But, he added, the financial difficulties were presented to trustees as such to force current faculty members, who could not be fired due to tenure, to either resign or see the music program end.

In addition, Singleton said, friction arose between Crews and longtime faculty members who resisted Crews’ suggestion the music school begin focusing more on contemporary worship styles rather than more traditional church music.

Crews admitted that philosophical differences”and some personality issues”factored into the trustees’ initial decision to close the music school but said”the basis of the decision was the financial emergency in the music school itself.”

Quote of the day: the Rev. Barry Stopfel and Will Leckie

(RNS) In their new book,”Courage to Love”(Doubleday), the Rev. Barry Stopfel, a gay Episcopal priest and Rector of St. George’s Episcopal Church in Maplewood, N.J., and his partner Will Leckie, also an ordained minister, write on why they believe it is important for all to declare publicly”who one is”and”what one believes”:”It is this opening of our hearts, the softening of our judgments and moral edicts, that is necessary if humanity is ever to discover a sane and compassionate path of coexistence in the midst of cultural and religious diversity.”

END RNS